Thursday, 31 October 2013

The Yen Buddhists are the richest religious sect in the universe. They
hold that the accumulation of money is a great evil and a burden to the
soul. They therefore, regardless of personal hazard, see it as their
unpleasant duty to acquire as much as possible in order to reduce the
risk to innocent people. -- (Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad)

I'm quite enjoying hunting in the Minmatar Faction Warfare Zone, whilst it is frustrating it can be rewarding. I'm now on to Tristan number six after a less than stellar night.

Last night I warped in on a Firetail that was waiting on the beacon inside a plex, his neut and superior speed made short work of me. Not an auspicious start to my evening. I caught a rather young Condor pilot a bit later, seemingly asleep at the controls.

Things started to get interesting when I warped in a plex just in front of a Maller, there was a Navy Slicer and Malediction on scan too, I was kinda hoping for one of them to come in, but when they all landed the fight was on and a race for survival was on. I aligned to the sun at full speed, clawing range from the Maller but the Slicer and Malediction had me tackled, easily weaving in and out of long point range, I set drones on the Malediction to try force him off, my overloaded repper just about keeping up with the long range damage, every now and again I would Crazy Ivan towards the Slicer but it's superior speed and agility meant I was just not able to get into web range, the Maller at this point was no longer a threat, I either needed to get out of point range o both o them or kill one of these fuckers. my repper was out of paste and as the long reload cycle started I had managed to force the Malediction off, still pointed by the Slicer, but the damage wasn't too overwhelming, I was however in deep structure but it was just me and the Slicer now, painful seconds ticking by as I waited in hope of the reload cycle finishing.

The night was seemingly a wash, no much about other than a few larger groups of faction warriors, nothing I could realistically pick off on my own and due to the previous two losses I was feeling a little disappointed, a quick Rifter snack perked me up a little and refreshed my appetite, but it was getting late so I decided to head to Bosena to dock for the night, on the way, passing through Evati I spied another Rifter on scan, I warped to the plex and made my way inside, I land pretty much on top o the Rifter and engage, moving out to Null range and launching my drones.

My shields are stripped and massive holes are being shot out of my armour.

Goddamn Arty Rifter, being flown rather well.

I can not stress to you how important a skill thermodynamics is, the overloaded nanite fuelled repper had kept me alive just barely, now it was out of paste and I had to resort to some smart flying but the Rifter was by this point in trouble, I had hit structure but so had he and fortunately for me, I had more structure, an explosion of satisfaction as debris of the Rifter rains against my Tristan.

A great fight and after looking at the killmail, I saw the pilot was vastly experienced with a very high rank on Battle Clinic, the dude could fly.

This got me looking at my stats at Battle Clinic (I mainly use BC because it's probably the most comprehensive of all the options available and has most of my early kills)

Over the years the way killmails are generated has changed, instead of just showing what was destroyed it now shows everything, a great deal of information can now be harvested from them.

One thing that really stood out for me was the ISK damage I have inflicted over my career... 1.1 Trillion ISK worth of damage to the pilots of New Eden
Average cost per kill is just under 355million ISK
Average cost per loss is just over 85million ISK

Tuesday, 29 October 2013

The pre-luncheon drinks were going quite well, Mr Bucket thought.
Everyone was making polite conversation and absolutely no one had been
killed up to the present moment. -- (Terry Pratchett, Maskerade)

Monday, 28 October 2013

The kraken stirs. And ten billion sushi dinners cry out for vengeance.

-- (Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens)

A few days ago I was contacted by a long time reader, recently retired from wormhole space and looking to find his way in lowsec, as such he endeavoured to battle me.

Yesterday I spent a fruitless day hunting the Minmatar faction warfare zones, I was met with either overwhelming force or MWD kiters, with only one fight I headed home, rather despondent with only one proper fight the whole trip.

Sitting in Amamake, on what would seem to be yet another fruitless day, when all the Navy Slicers would warp away, Jiffah contacted me and asked if I was still up for the battle, now anyone who knows me will tell you I love 1v1s, have always and will always honour them, so I headed back to Gusandall after a quick shower and dinner to get ready for what I expected to be an interesting fight.

I haven't had a 1v1 in a while, folk are so skittish these days that I've even been laughed at for even offering, saying I would just get my 'friends' to come gank them, didn't know folk were so attached to their frigates to be honest, so to say I'm a little rusty is a slight under statement.

1v1s are a little different than most combat in the universe, for a start, you need to make sure your 1v1 tab is set up properly, not having the person you're fighting show up on your overview does not help your cause.

Jiffah arrived in Gus with a Tormentor, a ship I have not battled yet but one I've heard a great deal about. I had chosen my Battle Probe, a ship that I consider to be pound for pound the best brawler in the game

Tormentor

The Tormentor is a Combat Frigate designed for frontline fighting.TraitsAmarr Frigate skill bonus per level:
10% bonus to Small Energy Turret capacitor use
5% bonus to Small Energy Turret damageDevelopment
The Tormentor has been in service for many decades. For most of that
time it saw service as a mining ship, its size barring it from making
any kind of impact on the battlefield. As with most Amarr ships,
however, its strong defenses always made it a tough opponent to crack,
and with recent advances in turret capacitor use and damage output, its
lasers have now stopped digging into dead ore and are instead focused on
boring through the hulls of hapless vessels in combat.

VS

Probe

The Probe is a Frigate designed for exploring the depths of space.TraitsMinmatar Frigate skill bonus per level:
7.5% increase to scan strength of probes
5% bonus to Salvager cycle timeRole Bonus:
+5 Virus Strength to Relic and Data AnalyzersDevelopment
The Probe is large compared to most Minmatar frigates and is considered a
good scout and cargo-runner. Uncharacteristically for a Minmatar ship,
its hard outer coating makes it difficult to destroy, while the limited
weapon hardpoints force it to rely on fighter assistance if engaged in
combat.

I land on grid and nothing on overview, quick pan out, lock and engage, I know the Tormentor can have good range but I have a trick up my sleeve to force him in,, we dance around each other at 8km with purple pulses of death slamming into my Probe, I reply with salvos of rockets and autocannon fire, drones from both ships, pass each other on the way to the other.

We're both in armour, I'm pulsing my repper as I start to orbit to mitigate some of the scorch damage, my opponent however seems to have activated Beast Mode tank, I'm starting to get down to my last few remaining explosive rockets (Another thing to remember about 1v1s is to bring enough ammo)

I make the mistake of switching to thermal rage rockets, but after he near reps all his armour back I switch to faction thermal and start to overheat in earnest. I'm slowly dealing damage to his structure before he reps chuncks of armour back, it's starting to look grim as bits of my ship start melting, first to go is my scram, I'm having to nurse my gun and launchers to make sure they don't suffer the same fate. With one last burst of overheating, I punch through his last armour and decimate what structure is left, the Tormentor torments me no more

Kane Rizzel > great fightJiffah > gf :)

I scoop the loot and dock up to repair what is left of my Probe, everything is on fire and my deck crew are going to have a hell of a time fixing everything.

Jiffah > One more round if you don't mind?Kane Rizzel > sureKane Rizzel > mind if I change ship?Jiffah > sureJiffah > fair enoughKane Rizzel > the probe is a little opKane Rizzel > that tomentor tanks like a beastJiffah > I burned out my AB, after that it was only matter of time when you finish meKane Rizzel > I always end up burning something out

Jiffah returns in another Tormentor but I want to try something a little different, I go for an old Incursus build of mine with one minor upgrade from my old standard

Tormentor

The Tormentor is a Combat Frigate designed for frontline fighting.TraitsAmarr Frigate skill bonus per level:
10% bonus to Small Energy Turret capacitor use
5% bonus to Small Energy Turret damageDevelopment
The Tormentor has been in service for many decades. For most of that
time it saw service as a mining ship, its size barring it from making
any kind of impact on the battlefield. As with most Amarr ships,
however, its strong defenses always made it a tough opponent to crack,
and with recent advances in turret capacitor use and damage output, its
lasers have now stopped digging into dead ore and are instead focused on
boring through the hulls of hapless vessels in combat.

VS

Incursus

The Incursus is a Combat Frigate designed for frontline fighting.TraitsGallente Frigate skill bonus per level:
7.5% bonus to Armor Repairer effectiveness
5% bonus to Small Hybrid Turret damage

Development
The Incursus may be found both spearheading and bulwarking Gallente
military operations. Its speed makes it excellent for skirmishing
duties, while its resilience helps it outlast its opponents on the
battlefield. Incursus-class ships move together in groups and can
quickly and effectively gang up on ships many times their size and
overwhelm them. In recent years the Incursus has increasingly found its
way into the hands of pirates, who love its aggressive appearance.

Jiffah > Ok, same spot, i'm hereKane Rizzel > ok, omw gl and hf

I warp in again, Jiffah is at 18km from me, and he moves rather quickly, but very soon we're in range of each others scrams,but my blasters seem to be doing very little damage to his shields, I'm barely scratching him at this point, so with a web advantage I move closer and reload to void, the Tormentor explodes.

I check the killmail and see why my damage to his shields appeared weak

Kane Rizzel > gf againJiffah > gfKane Rizzel > did not expect the switch to shieldsJiffah > heheKane Rizzel > thought my damage was really poor lolJiffah > rushing straight to you was clearly a mistakeKane Rizzel > I switched to voidKane Rizzel > so yeahKane Rizzel > clear punched right throughJiffah > more important you caught me with scramblerJiffah > no chance for MWDJiffah > anyway that was funKane Rizzel > yeah, thanks for that, very rare I get 1v1s these days, everyone so paranoidJiffah > thank you too for accepting my challengeKane Rizzel > you're welcome dudeKane Rizzel > will do a blog about it :)Jiffah > That's it for now, fly dangerous o7Kane Rizzel > o7

So I undock in my Tristan, I'm almost convinced it's a trap as he's hugging the station but I intend to see this through as I close and start to circle, he engages and the fight is on, I'm already in armour as my drones and guns start to chew meaningfully into his shields, an overloaded repper is just about dealing with the incoming damage but I have now well and truly got him as his shields vapourise and chunks of armour are shredded away,he explodes violently, lighting up the dark side of Gusandall station.

Kane Rizzel > gfhoogy thekiller > fuck uKane Rizzel > no use get angry about it, you called Gus outhoogy thekiller > can i see ya fithoogy thekiller > and i had lagg

Oh well, sorry for your lag.Other than the guy being an absolute muppet it was a very good fight.

Saturday, 26 October 2013

Sometimes it's better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness. -- (Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms)

A quick roam through to Bamamake sees me watching everything in a faction warfare plex cloak as I land on the acceleration gate. I sensed a frustrating evening as this seems to be SOP for faction warfare. Perhaps a beacon inside the plexes that stopped all cloaking?

Anyways, I digress, I plan to pop into Bamamake before heading to Bosena, in Gulmogrod I'm in warp to the Ama gate, spamming the on-board scanner as is my way, a Panther appears on scan at the gate, a quick check of local confirms my suspicion, an old cloaky dramiel flying plex farmer now gate bomber waits for my arrival.

I turn on my damage control, overload my repper, turn it on as I land on the gate:

I did get to have a great little 2v1 on the way to Bosena, an Atron and Slasher that didn't cloak as I warped to the small plex in Egmar, they killed three of my drones though, I do hate losing drones, but I love a good fight. Thumbs up to these guys for standing and fighting.

Wednesday, 23 October 2013

The Kappamaki, a whaling research ship, was currently researching the question: How many whales can you catch in one week?

-- (Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens)

I've taken to roaming a few faction warfare zones with no real fights to speak of, one fight against a Firetail on a stargate ended with his Cynabal friend jumping in and popping me just as he was about to die in a fire, and two separate procurer kills. (Edit, a rather nice little fight against a merlin now) It appears faction warfare is plagued by Cloakers... Oh well.

The big announcement is that I will be next year be volunteering for Sea Shepherd as crew member on one of their ships, basically according to the 9th circuit court I will be a Pirate.

I've not yet been assigned a specific ship, will find out more after the current Antarctic campaign ends but will be shipping out next March, most likely from Melbourne in Australia.
I have given notice at my current employ, which ends mid December, so that I can go spend the festive season and new years with my family in South Africa for the first time in 13 years, before returning to the London to finish preparations for at least a year away.

The Rizzel's will go into hibernation, waiting for my return.

Until then I will be about a bit more often, trying to get fights here and there, doing piratey things as is my way.

Thursday, 3 October 2013

My experience in Amsterdam is that cyclists ride where the hell they
like and aim in a state of rage at all pedestrians while ringing their
bell loudly, the concept of avoiding people being foreign to them.

My dream holiday would be

a) a ticket to Amsterdamb) immunity from prosecution and c) a baseball bat :-)

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